Saturday, January 1, 2011

vintage pillowcase apron you can really use {sewing tutorial}

Happy New Year!! Hope you all had a safe and happy end to 2010. I was folding laundry and listening to a book on my iPod when the new year hit (while everyone else in my house slept), but hey, that's my life right now and I'm happy with it! The best part was waking up to Anne of Green Gables on PBS--my husband turned it on to wake me up. I did wake up, but his plan was foiled when I stayed in bed to watch it all morning. 2011 is bound to be a good year with that start! (I know, I'm a nerd, but I'm not afraid to admit it!)

I'm so excited to start the year off with a fabulous and quite ingenious tutorial from the fabulous and ingenious Jennifer. It's a pillowcase apron with an inventive addition. You're going to want to run right out and make it. Good thing it's a holiday weekend!

Pillowcase Apron with Towel Tutorial

When my mother was downsizing her house last spring, she gave me a whole stack of old embroidered pillowcases. I really loved them, but I knew that I wouldn’t be using them for pillows. I already have a whole stack of them that I was given when I got married that I’ve never used. Last spring I saw a friend wear an apron to work that was made from an embroidered pillowcase. I loved it and knew right away what I was going to be doing with that stack of pillowcases. I made this apron for my newly married daughter, who is living in Germany. She loves blue and I knew that she would really like to have one of her grandmother’s pillowcases.

I used this tutorial by Crafty Dame to make the apron. It was really fast and pretty easy, although if I make another one I am going to make the waistband (not the ties) a little bigger and have less gathering in the skirt. It took just about an hour to make it.

My husband teases me that my life is always form over function (he’s an engineer). While it is true that I tend to make things more pretty than functional, it’s not always the case. I knew while I was making this apron that it would be hard to use in the kitchen because I wouldn’t want to get it dirty. I also know that I am always looking for a kitchen towel to wipe my hands or wipe up messes, so I decided to add a kitchen towel to this apron.

I sewed buttons to the waist band of the apron. I tried to make them match the embroidery. I didn’t worry too much about the size because I wanted them to be a decorative element if you didn’t have the towel attached.

I used a bar mop which I folded over about 5 or 6 inches and sewed button holes into it.

The bar mop just buttons on and off over the apron and is perfect for wiping hands, cleaning up messes, protecting the apron from grease and can even be used as a hot pad in a pinch. When it gets dirty just unbutton it and throw it in the washer. The bar mop is not anywhere near as pretty as the apron, but I thought it made the apron a lot more functional.

too too too cute! What a lovely way to USE those pillowcases and let them be seen! Plus I loved Anne of Green Gables (& Sarah Plain and Tall too - remember that?) We are nerds but that is a good thing!